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Actually, primetime already feels like a highlights show. The sports that are run in primetime, all of them are filled with side stories and the actual events are reduced to show American athletes (and I do want them to show American athletes) but they cut a majority of the action that is going on with non american athletes. The problem with your argument is that you assume NBC is full of first run events in primetime when they are not. They are full of tape edited, not showing the whole spectrum of the games.

Yes, that's still first run when you haven't seen the video yet, even if you know the results. This isn't a football game or a golf tournament. A 2-minute swim race where you know the results is a lot different than a 3-hour football game that you knew the final score to. That's why I'm saying you can't show everything earlier and then repeat it in primetime because then it's no longer first run. And if you think primetime is already a highlights show (which in some ways it is), then what's to change about it? They have to edit it down somehow. There's a lot of dead time during Olympic events, so that editing almost helps to make it more compelling, even if it cuts out a lot of competitors. But again, if you want these events in full (and you get them largely without interruption), you have that option now. That's how you satisfy both fanbases.. those who want constant action and those who are in it for the storylines.

But you may say, well, this is already been done with the online coverage. But you see, the online coverage does not give you the ultimate experience. The current online coverage is a feed with no commentaries (not that I like some of these commentaries, but you still need someone to run the show, it's like having a party with no DJ). One can also make the argument that the online feed is not as appealing and practical in terms of the HD viewing experience as watching television channel. Although people are capable of turning their computer into a 65 inch HD display in decent quality, there are several things that the end user will need to be ready for in order to accomplish that. So it is not a practical idea when there are millions of fans.

That's the whole point though.. NBC thinks (and I'm planning on doing this myself) that you'll watch the live feed and because it lacks context, you'll check it out again in primetime.

You have to remember.. NBC's goal is to get you to consume as much of the Olympics as possible. If they're showing their best stuff in the afternoon, is there going to be a draw to see a highlights show in primetime? I don't see it. Besides, you don't want people to skip over the qualifying rounds and go straight to the finals. How many people want to watch all of the Phelps races, not just when he goes for medals. Setting up a specialty channel is only going to detract from what you already have, not add to it. If you're trying to maximize the total number of hours of Olympics coverage consumed (let alone the business side of things of trying to generate advertising revenue), I don't see this being able to increase that and if anything, you're hurting it if you're encouraging people just to watch finals and have the best stuff done with by the end of the afternoon. Because after that, they'll be seeking out something else to watch, not watching the highlights (which is to say the re-run) in primetime.

"This is television, that's all it is. It has nothing to do with people, it's to do with ratings! For fifty years, we've told them what to eat, what to drink, what to wear... for Christ's sake, don't you understand? Americans love television. They wean their kids on it. Listen. They love game shows, they love wrestling, they love sports and violence. So what do we do? We give 'em what they want! We're number one, that's all that counts, believe me. I've been in the business for thirty years."

You have to remember.. NBC's goal is to get you to consume as much of the Olympics as possible. If they're showing their best stuff in the afternoon, is there going to be a draw to see a highlights show in primetime? I don't see it.

Well... there is another way of looking at that. Chances are high that some people can't see it at night because they work in a restaurant or store or some other evening job, and they watch it in the afternoon. Similarly plenty of people work in the day time and can't see it in the afternoon.

If you have ONE showing, you can get say.... 10 million viewers. If you have TWO showings, maybe you will get 7 Million viewers in the afternoon, and 5 million viewers at night, effectively having 12 Million viewers watch your commercials.

Also, LIVE viewing promotes commercial viewing. So the 7 million watching it in the afternoon will see the commercials for sure, or at least the majority.

See, if the event is going to be tape-delayed anyways, and another 3 hours on top of that, I might as well make that 4 hours, watch some other DVR'd Olympics, and not watch ANY commercials on NBC whatsoever. I think with the live showing, they would actually get more commercial viewers. Delay is delay, for those with a DVR it then doesn't matter anymore your build in your own delay to prevent commercial watching.

And that might also be a very compelling reason - especially in weekends - to show important stuff live.

For myself, in 2010/2008, I watched stuff live IF it was live (and thus saw commercials). If it was delayed in any way, I just added my own DVR delay and watched NO commercials whatsoever.

[Disclaimer] The definition of "soon" is based solely on DirecTV's interpretation of the word, and all similarities with dictionary definitions of the word "soon" are purely coincidental and should not be interpreted as a time frame that will come to pass within a reasonable amount of time.

Besides, you don't want people to skip over the qualifying rounds and go straight to the finals. How many people want to watch all of the Phelps races, not just when he goes for medals.

I disagree. Speaking as someone who watched all of his gold medals wins in 2008, I didn't see a single qualifying heat. What's the point? Everyone knows he's going to make the final. The top competitors don't even try that hard in qualifying heats (e.g., you'll see Usain Bolt pull up 20 m from the finish because he already knows he's going to finish high enough to get to the finals.) (Here's a Usain Bolt qualifying heat from the 2011 World Championships. Not exactly exciting. )

Eurosport 3D does it live.Sky Sports 3D does it live.BBC is really just starting with 3D and has some events live.... but they aren't doing a whole lot of 3D yet.

Maybe they can't get it fed live yet across the Atlantic and the actual programming is moved via internet connections to the n3D facility in the U.S.

There isn't any other technical reason I can think of, 3D was designed to be live for sports and what not.

[Disclaimer] The definition of "soon" is based solely on DirecTV's interpretation of the word, and all similarities with dictionary definitions of the word "soon" are purely coincidental and should not be interpreted as a time frame that will come to pass within a reasonable amount of time.

I'm guessing the iPlayer has bars because none of the apple products (iPhone, Ipad) have a 16:9 screen. So they have to be letterboxed to show the whole 16:9 picture, or you have to cut some of the picture off to take up the whole screen (a practice that I loathe).

Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."
-by Jack Handy

I'm guessing the iPlayer has bars because none of the apple products (iPhone, Ipad) have a 16:9 screen. So they have to be letterboxed to show the whole 16:9 picture, or you have to cut some of the picture off to take up the whole screen (a practice that I loathe).

It doesn't have bars if you choose the pop out version. The default version has bars that they use to provide information on the events, stats, athletes, pointers to key highlights, etc. But if you want full screen choose the pop out and it's full screen.

Sports Mix Channel (Ch. 205 and 600)Watch all of NBCU's coverage of the 2012 London Olympics at the same time on our exclusive Sports Mix Channel. When you want to watch just one of the NBCU channels, just select it on your screen to tune in.

Would it be possible for Directv to remap the channels that are showing the Olympics in a chunk (in the 700 channels for example) It'd make things so much easier when you want to watch the Olympics, instead having them spread out all over the place.

Yes, not happy so far and I haven't figured out a convenient way to see what's on which channels. The Sports Mix is a joke as it's not Olymplics coverage and the NBC main channel is showing repeats and crap. I know I'm probably not the norm, but I don't really want to watch sports that I see all the time during the Olympics - no basketball, no boxing, no tennis, no soccer. And two hours of womens basketball on Saturday, really?

Yes, not happy so far and I haven't figured out a convenient way to see what's on which channels. The Sports Mix is a joke as it's not Olymplics coverage and the NBC main channel is showing repeats and crap. I know I'm probably not the norm, but I don't really want to watch sports that I see all the time during the Olympics - no basketball, no boxing, no tennis, no soccer. And two hours of womens basketball on Saturday, really?

Best method to see what is on is to use the nbcolympics.com website and TV Listings.

But unless you watch on line, expect swimming, soccer and basketball. And, of course, pretty much only what the USA is competing in.

And, really, you create a soccer channel to show the same event that is on the main network??? Really?